Looking at his painting Self-portrait as Mars (Selbstbildnis mit Artillerie-Helm) by Otto Dix, I felt as though I was looking at the Greek God Areas, god of war and the many faces he had. In the painting, their are a variety of colors from red, black, gold, and a dirty white and blue. I felt it was essential to note these colors for they are all representative of being dirty, impure, tainted and a bloody death. Even the colors blue and white are tarnished in a way to show sin. This reminded me of the purity of the White Dove and its representation of Jesus. The white is pure, unlike in this picture. Using the god of war is significant because it puts the viewers' attention directly onto the World War I and the many faces it had to different people. To the Austrian/Hungarians it was an act of retaliation, to the British it was a war to save a falling Europe, to the French it was a war to survive, to the Japanese it was a war that stood to give them alot in the end. Each nation looked at the war in a different aspect. There was no one face of the war, but there were many. This is true to this day with looking at the Iraq War for example. To some Americans it is a War of retaliation, to Middle Easterners it is a war of the American Empire trying to further consume the land of their ancestors. As there are two sides to every story there are multiple sides to war. This is part of the reason why War is hard to be justifiable in the eyes of all parties. (http://www.ottodix.org/index/paintings)
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